Mark's Gibson Guitar (and some songbooks and tools)

Back on July 13, two of our granddaughters, Holly and Lindsey, came to visit me. I'd decided to give them Mark's 1958 Gibson guitar, that he told me he bought at a pawn shop in Lubbock (when he was a student at what was then Texas Technological College, 1960-65) for some ridiculously low price ($25 or $50, I can't remember which).  A lightweight guitar case came with it, which can be seen in the background in the photo above, which is of Mark and oldest daughter Kim (Holly's mom), taken in or before November 1965.

Sixty years later, the case in the photo was pretty beat up, but Lindsey had an extra one at home that she put the guitar into, and sent me this picture:

Above:  Mark's 1958 Gibson guitar in its "new" case. Photo by Lindsey.

Below:  Lindsey tries out the Gibson.

I never got to hear Mark play this guitar in Corpus Christi.  When we got back together in 2006, the arthritis in his hands had gotten so bad that he could no longer play.  Nevertheless, he'd kept this guitar (as well as a Martin he bought in 1992 and gave to son Drew between 2007 and 2018).  

I remember trying to find a place to repair the Gibson back in 2006 or 2007 - there wasn't a place locally back then.  Amazingly, just before Holly and Lindsey visited, I found a retired gentleman just 15 minutes away who restrung and tuned it, and cleaned and polished it, all for a very reasonable price.

The guitar has T 5365 7 stamped inside the sound hole at the bottom of the neck.  I used a number of websites that all indicated the T meant the guitar was made in 1958.

While they were here, we also looked through some old photo albums.  Lindsey spotted the guitar, or its case, in a number of them from 1964 and 1965.  A few days after they left, I was scanning a bunch of old black-and-white negatives that had Mark in the images, and I found another with the guitar, from about 1979.

Above:  Mark with oldest daughter Kim in Lubbock, June 1964.

Below:  Mark with daughters Kim and Noël in Corpus Christi, about 1979.

Above:  Mark with daughter Kim in Lubbock, late 1964.

Below:  Mark's parents Francis and Jewel Moore Gresham with granddaughter Kim in Lubbock, June 1964.

I also gave the girls some of Mark's music / song books.  A few had notes inside them.  The Josh White Song Book, published in 1963, was a first Father's Day gift to Mark from his parents and sisters Ann and June, during their visit to Lubbock in June 1964, pictured above.

Above:  Mark's 1963 Josh White Song Book.  Photo by Holly.

Below:  "To Mark on your first Father's Day from all the family," written on the first page of The Josh White Song Book.  It's also stamped with the name and address of the shop in Bremerton, Washington (where Mark's parents and sisters lived at the time) where it was purchased.  Photo by Holly.

Another was The Judy Collins Songbook from 1969, where Mark had made some notes about chords on the song "Early Mornin' Rain," a favorite for both of us, written by Gordon Lightfoot (my favorite solo singer).

Above:  Mark's 1969 Judy Collins Songbook.  Photo by Holly.

Below:  "Early Mornin' Rain" by Gordon Lightfoot in The Judy Collins Songbook, where Mark made some notes about chords.  Photo by Holly.

Mark also had a few copies of Reprints From Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine, including the one pictured below, Volume Three from 1961, where he'd made some notes on the song "East Virginia."  (Mark also borrowed a book about the folk songs of North America from the Texas Tech library, and forgot to return it.  I'll be doing that soon.) 

Above:  Volume Three of Mark's Reprints From Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine.  Photo by Holly.

Below:  The song "East Virginia" in Volume Three, with Mark's notes.  Photo by Holly.

Holly sent a picture of the songbooks on her bookshelf.  Besides the ones mentioned (the Reprints booklets are stored in the piano bench), I also gave her Mark's 1964 Joan Baez Songbook and his 1973 Carole King Anthology: From Then to Now.

Above:  Mark's songbooks are the four to the right on Holly's bookshelf.  Photo by Holly.

Below:  Holly with a couple of Mark's tools that she picked out.  The one on the left (in her right hand) is a Buffalo impact driver (apparently vintage) and the one on the right (in her left hand) is a Sears Craftsman beam style torque wrench (also vintage).  She actually knew what they were and what they are used for.

Holly is quite the handywoman, and was very interested in Mark's tools.  Besides the two she's pictured with above, she also took Mark's Sears Craftsman 6-inch bench vise.  Now, this is a tool I've actually used recently - to crack open glued cassette tape cases, to move the broken tapes inside to cases (with tapes I didn't like) that are sealed with easy-to-open screws.  I figure if I need to do that again, a neighbor will let me borrow a bench vise.  I still have plenty of clamps.

Above and below - Mark's bench vise installed on Holly's workbench.  Photos by Holly.

Holly and Lindsey plan to come back in the autumn, when it's cooler and they have more time, and stay overnight, and help me sort through Mark's tools, many of which he inherited from his dad, to determine what to keep and what to pass on to the kids and grandkids.  There are at least eight toolboxes full, plus assorted other tools on Mark's two workbenches, hanging on a pegboard, or in/on various cabinets, drawers, and shelves in the garage.  I hope Lindsey will play for us on Mark's former guitar.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

July 16, 2006: House Update

As I wrote in my online journal on July 15, 2006 - if something can go wrong, it will:

Well, you might know, I bragged in here too early about the house we were trying to buy. The appraisal came in on Thursday [July 13] and it is significantly lower than the sales price. The builder says he won't come down on the price. Currently he is in an RV on the way to Colorado. The mortgage company won't loan above the appraisal amount (and I can't blame them) except at a premium interest rate. We don't have the cash to pay the difference, and I would be resentful anyway paying that much (>10%) more than the house is appraised for.

We are now in a bit of a bind because we gave notice at our apartment and need to be out around the end of the month. The landlady has already pre-leased it to someone else. Thanks to all the Barnett Shale drilling going on around here, there are absolutely no vacancies anywhere. Not that I am too crazy about moving somewhere else, going through that hassle and having to sign a lease, even if short-term, only to (hopefully) move again into our newly-purchased home.

I really like the neighborhood and there is a brand new house across the street that is also for sale. Different builder and about 250 square feet smaller. It is also overpriced. We think we might have more luck convincing this builder to come down, because two of the three homes used as comps in the existing appraisal were his homes! One of those is in this same 23-lot neighborhood (that only has 8 occupied homes so far), and there was ANOTHER home he built in the neighborhood that could have been used as a comp if it hadn't sold just over a year ago.

I did some calculations based on the adjustments the appraiser made for different square footage in the comps, which is about the ONLY adjustment he made as almost everything else you'd make adjustments for is similar. I came up with a potential appraised value for this second house that ranges from a low of $35K less than the asking price to $8K less. We are thinking of offering the higher number, with a clause that we will pay that or the appraised value, whichever is lower.

Naturally, this being Saturday, we are having a hard time getting hold of anyone to make this happen. Meanwhile the month continues to tick away...

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So on Sunday, July 16, 2006, Mark and I toured the house across the street from ours.  I'd seen it before, back in early June during the Hood County Builders Association annual Showcase of New Homes, but this was Mark's first time inside.  I think from his facial expression, you can tell that he (like me) did not like this house quite as much as the one we did buy.

Above:  Mark inside the house across the street from the one we ultimately bought, leaning on the breakfast bar.

Below:  We forgot to bring a measuring tape, so I took this photo of Mark using his arms to measure the space to the right of the fireplace and just below a built-in glass-front cabinet.

I'm going to skip ahead a week, to July 22, 2006, and tell the rest of the story:

We are back with the first house!

We did make an offer on the 1636-square-foot house (hereafter referred to as 1636SF) across the street last Saturday, at the figure our realtor thought the house would appraise at, which was $15K under the asking price. That builder countered with a figure about $9K higher; we countered again but he held firm. So, it looked like we would get that house for about $6K under the asking price, and about $10K more than what we thought it would appraise for, which we were willing to pay.

The signed paperwork on that deal was turned over to the mortgage company on the 19th, and they were asked to prepare the letter for the first builder (the 1886-square-foot house, aka 1886SF) to formally inform him the appraisal came in low so the deal was off. In the meantime, though, that builder called our realtor and requested a meeting.

Our realtor went to see him the morning of the 20th. Apparently, he needs to get 1886SF out of his inventory because of the other projects he has going on, and was now willing to deal. He dropped the price to one 15K less than that on the contract, 10K above the appraisal.

In the meantime, the mortgage broker talked to the appraiser about 1636SF, and the appraiser quoted a figure that was also about 10K less than the contract. We decided that if we were going to have to come up with 10K cash for a house, we'd rather have 1886SF, because it is bigger and nicer (1636SF does not have hardwood floors, for example).

I had thought we would lose our earnest money if we dropped out of the deal on 1636SF, but I had forgotten we paid $50 for a ten-day option (meant to allow for inspections and such) where we could back out for no reason. So, we did just that on 1636SF, just losing the $50, and that house was only off the market for a day (if even that; I don't think the listing agent had even gotten around to updating the Multiple Listing Service).

We did this AFTER getting the revised contract at the new price initialed by all parties on 1886SF, which happened in the evening on the 20th. We are back to getting 1886SF for $20K less than the builder's original asking price, and we will be able to close by the end of the month, Wednesday [July 26, 2006] at the earliest, hopefully Friday the 28th at the latest.

So, this weekend we will be busy packing boxes. Next Saturday we'll go get my stuff out of storage, as otherwise we will not have a bed to sleep on!

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

July 12, 2006: Wildflower Bouquet

I came home from work - only my sixth day on the job as a new librarian at Tarleton State University - and was so pleased to find these on the dining area table!  Mark had picked these wildflowers in the field next to our apartment building.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

July 8, 2006: Twins Baseball

We were invited to a number of baseball games of our twin grandsons, Adam and Drew, in April and May 2006.  If we did go to any, there is no record - we did not take photos, and there's no reference to them in any emails.  Perhaps we didn't go, as the games were in Allen, Texas, then a good two-hour drive from Granbury, and I was pretty busy in April and May with school and work and applying for jobs.

However, the boys' team, the Yankees, played in a tournament in Bowie, Texas, on Saturday, July 8, 2006, so we drove up to watch the game.  Afterwards we probably went out to eat, and then spent some time visiting with Mark's daughter Kim and her husband Mike while the boys swam in the pool at the motel they were staying at for the tournament.

Above:  Kim with Adam and Drew after the baseball game in Weatherford, Texas, July 8, 2006.  Mark took this photo.

Below:  Adam and Drew and two other children play at the pool at the motel in Weatherford, Texas, July 8, 2006.

Don't ask me to tell you which twin is which.  Even now, when they are almost 30-year-old adults, I can only tell them apart because they live in different cities and they have girlfriends who aren't twins.  

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

July 4, 2006: Hometown Celebration

For over 50 years now, our town of Granbury, Texas, has hosted an old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration.  There's a parade in the morning from the high school down the main road of town (Pearl Street) to the Hood County Courthouse square, then around it and back to the high school via Bridge Street (runs parallel to Pearl) and some back roads.  As the parade wrapped around the square, children who had participated in a bike/trike decorating contest joined in.

Mark and I drove from the apartment and parked somewhere within reasonable walking distance of the square - maybe in the driveway of our soon-to-be home, which is five blocks away.  We spent a little time after the parade wandering around the booths set up on the square itself, where Mark took the photo below.

Mark loved for me to wear that Stetson.  It originally belonged to my son, and was purchased for him in Bandera, Texas, in July 1998, when he was twelve.  He outgrew it, so it became mine.  I probably decorated it with a small flag for this day, but it always has an artificial bluebonnet in the ribbon around the crown.  I'm wearing a necklace and earrings Mark gave to me, and holding a fan distributed by a local business.

We could have gone to the rodeo at the Reunion Grounds, but that would have involved driving to another location, so we opted to return to our apartment for the hot afternoon and evening.  After dark, we were able to watch the fireworks from the end of our apartment building that was closest to the water, as the firework show occurs over Lake Granbury.  Some photos from the parade and the fireworks can be found here.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

July 1, 2006: Mark Bakes a Peach Pie

Mark claimed he wasn't a baker (but agreed he could cook).  However, he made this peach pie from scratch on Saturday, July 1, 2006, in our small apartment kitchen.  He rolled out the dough for the crust, and used a wire basket we'd bought the previous day at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Fort Worth to dip fresh peaches in hot water to make them easier to peel.

My big contribution to this effort was purchasing the peaches from Vogel Orchard (operated by the family of my college friend Carolyn Vogel) in Stonewall the previous weekend.  I had gone to nearby Fredericksburg to visit my parents after attending a memorial service in New Braunfels with them, for my great aunt Edith Elizabeth Wolfe Smith Murff Brown Gould Knox, who died May 31 at age 95.

Oh, and that shirt he's wearing?  I picked that out for him,  It was the only shirt with a paisley pattern I could find - I was looking for one similar to the one he wore in my favorite photo of him.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!